Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Henry William Reichstein is actually Wilhelm Heinrich Reichstein.

He anglisised his christian names and reversed the order as they were typically German sounding names.

- completed by St Joseph's School Clare

The Reichstein family tree started with Johann Wilhelm Reichstein and Johanna Caroline Dorothea moving to Australia back in 1853. August Hermann was the 7th kid. Wilhelm Heinrich was the first son to August Hermann. Henry anglicised his Christian names and reversed the order as they were typically German-sounding names. Henry the eldest child, had 7 other younger siblings, Adolph Ernst Reichstein, August Charles Reichstein, Otto Friedrich Reichstein, Hermann Rudolph Reichstein, Bertha Clara Reichstein, Gustav Albert Reichstein and Paul Edmund Reichstein.

He was born in the Hundred of Willowie on 31st July 1882. He obtained his education at the state school at Booleroo Whim, and religious instruction at the Willowie Bethlehem Lutheran Church. He was confirmed into membership of the church on the 24th of January 1897. 

Like all young men in that era, he helped with the work on the farm, mostly in an honorary capacity, to clear the heavily timbered country so that wheat could be grown. With his father and brothers, he took contracts for roadmaking. The farms in this area were small and there was no future for a family of six sons. In 1907, with his brothers Ernst and Charlie, he went to farmland near the township of Peake on the Pinnaroo line. This was scrub country and had to be cleared before farming could be carried on. It was a white, sandy country of low fertility. Yields of nine to ten bushels of wheat per acre were regarded as a reasonable return, but not adequate with the labour and expense involved. With a bullock team he rolled thousands of acres of scrub in the Murray Mallee Area, all done on a contract basis, so earning money by other means than just by growing wheat.

During and after war: In August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany, meaning Australia was also at war. Henry William Reichstein was among the 330,000 Australians who volunteered to go overseas. Reichstein travelled to the Adelaide SA recruitment office from Booleroo on 4th October 1916 to sign up for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). After completing the AIF enlistment form called the ‘Attestation Paper’ where Reichstein had to confirm his age, occupation, marital status and that he was homed in South Australia. Reichstein also notified that his next of kin was ‘(Mother) REICHSTEIN Paulina’. On the second page of the Attestation Paper he made the following oath in the presence of the Arresting Officer: “I, Henry William REICHSTEIN … swear that I will well and truly serve our Sovereign Lord the King in the Australian Imperial Force until the end of the War … SO HELP ME, GOD.” Reichstein was then assigned the AIF service number 4402 which would appear on his active service, medical records and honour roll. As all new recruits, Reichstein underwent a thorough medical examination. He was cleared to be free of a wide range of conditions that would “unfit him for the duties of a solider”. The examining Medical Officer stated that Reichstein “can see the required distance with either eye; his heart and lungs are healthy; he has the free use of his joints; and he declares he is not subject to fits of any description. I consider him fit for active service”. Reichstein was a member of the 32nd Infantry Battalion, 11th Reinforcement. The 32nd Battalion was raised in South Australia on 9 August 1915 and formed part of the 8th Brigade. Reichstein was put on the HMAT A19 Afric. ‘HMAT’ stood for ‘His Majesty’s Australian Transport’. HMAT A19 Afric departed Adelaide on the 7th of November on its original route to Great Britian but got re-routed up the Suez Canal to Egypt. Australia had already been at war for 822 days. The impressive four-week journey across the Indian Ocean to Egypt has been described as “the longest journey to war in the history of the world”.

On the ship, officers organised demanding drills and exercise sessions for the men. They were expected to do their own washing, sweep the decks and carry out other chores. Three meals a day were served: breakfast usually consisted of porridge, stew and tea. Lunch included soup, meat, vegetables and pudding. Dinner was meat, bread with jam and tea. Once the troops arrived at Maadi on the Nile and Mena, with the campus situated near the pyramids of Giza. The training began. The training was gruelling: marching through sand, digging and attacking trenches for eight hours a day, six days a week. From mid-1916, many of the Australian troops continued onto England where they trained at camps on the Salisbury Plains, near Stonehenge. Here they prepared for the trench warfare on the Western Front, including training with new types of weapons and learning how to deal with poison gas attacks.

Reichstein was committed to the front for the first time on the 16th July, 1916. After being in the trenches for 2 days Reichstein took part in fighting in the Fromelles on the 19th July, 1916. The 32nd Battalion was part of the 8th Brigade's initial assault on the left flank of the Australian front that was focused around a position known as the "Sugarloaf". The battalion faced intense German machine-gun fire and artillery barrages, resulting in 71 killed, 375 wounded, and 219 missing, before reaching German lines. After a day of intense fighting and loss, the remnants of the 32nd Battalion were forced to withdraw, with the withdrawal completed by 7:30 AM on July 20th. As a result of these losses, the 32nd Battalion was used mainly in a support role throughout the remainder of 1916.

After spending a bitter winter undertaking defensive duties on the Somme, during early 1917 the battalion took part in the operations in pursuit of the German forces as they withdrew towards the Hindenburg Line, but found itself in a flank protection role during the Second Battle of Bullecourt in May. On 26th September 1917, the battalion was heavily committed to the fighting around polygon wood near Ypres in Belgium during the Battle of Passchendaele; again they were employed as a support role.

The battalion re-entered the trenches in the Messines sector, occupying positions near Warneton in January 1918, staying there until March. In April, the 8th was moved to the Somme in defensive positions around the canal between Corbie and Vaux. After the German advance stalled, the battalion was involved in a series of minor battles along the Bray Corbie Road throughout July and taking part in operations around Morlancourt and the Morcourt Valley as the Allies sought to regain the initiative. The battalion then took part in operations in the Peronne area throughout August and September, fighting the battalions final engagement of the war between 29th September and 1st October 1918 as a part of a joint Australian and American attack along the St Quentin Canal.

At 11am on the 11th of November 1918, Germany signed the Armistice that would bring the war to an end. In cities and towns across Australia people celebrated in the streets. those who returned to Australia, many bore the scars of their experience for the rest of their lives. On Reichstein’s return, he farmed with his brother Ernst at Paruna until his retirement to Murray Bridge. His only hobby was horse racing on a minor scale. He died on 17th July 1960, aged 77 years and is buried in the Murray Bridge cemetery.

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